News

January 31, 2001

Sega certainly looks like it has been planning to support the GBA for some time! According to IGNPocket, Chu Chu Rocket! will be a Japanese GBA release title! I'd be suprised if this didn't support GBA's wireless net... Also, Puyo Puyo will once again show its face--this time on the GBA. It should... Read more...

According to the N-Sider, yes Sega does have Dev kits for the GameCube. According to N-Sider, Sega has moved passed preliminary negotiations with Microsoft and Nintendo. They are apparently getting full cooperation from both industry giants. Sega has already ordered dev kits for both systems. N-Sider has this to say:

Contained within is all kinds of Sega related news including the announcment of Chu Chu Rocket for the Gameboy Advance.

Puzzle fans rejoice!! The mega-hit Dreamcast game Chu Chu Rocket has been announced for the Game Boy Advance. In Chu Chu Rocket, players have to heard tiny little mice thingies (Chu Chus) into Rocket and keep them from getting eaten by the Kapu Kapu (big stupid looking cats with swirly eyes)! If you've... Read more...

With EA heavily rumored to be on the GameCube bandwagon to the extent that its basically taken as fact, comes news that helps cement the publishing giant as a GCN supporter. EA CEO and Chairman Larry Probst said, "Gamecube is going to be an important platform in the next generation. You can surmise that we will be there when it is launched."

Midway is bringing Arctic Thunder to all next-gen systems except the Dreamcast.

Another day, another GC title confirmed. Check it out:

Today, Gaming Age has confirmed that Arctic Thunder, one of Midway's latest arcade titles, has been confirmed for an X-Box, Gamecube and Playstation 2 release. Sadly, the Dreamcast won't be seeing this semi-sequel to Hydro Thunder due to the fact that Midway is applying their limited resources to the other consoles.

January 30, 2001

Sega confirms the DC price drop (to $99) and introduces the "Smash Pack". Would you like some Sega classics with that Dreamcast sir? PICTURES!!!

OK, so in addition to what we posted earlier, Sega has announced that Dreamcast systems are confirmed to drop in price and will retail for $99 starting Febuary 5th. Justin Wood, my longtime buddy (& a staffer of Segadojo) told me a "Smash Pack" (which includes a Sega classics comp) should be available... Read more...

The Younger Plumber attends the conference "Entertainment in the Interactive Age" and tells us all about it.

I know there are those of you who are confused about what the “Entertainment in the Interactive Age” conference was all about, so I’ll give a brief summary of what I experienced these past two days. The University of Southern California regularly holds special events with guest speakers, and... Read more...

I just took a "Planet break" to take in some anime on Cartoon Network (Outlaw Star is cool, yo) and saw an ad for Paper Mario during the commercial break. Looks like Paper Mario finally has a release date too, Febuary 5th, indicated by Nintendo's Gamelist. There's still a good deal to come to keep... Read more...

SOE announces its plans to become a neutral 3rd party. The Dreamcast chip set will also be licensed to a range of devices including Palm. Finally, Sonic Advance is announced.

Sega of Europe has announced the company's future plans. According to SOE, Sega has a two-pronged approach. One, to become a neutral third-party developer. Two, provide the Dreamcast chip-set technology to a range of devices. One of these devices include the PACE Set Top Box. SOE has also announced... Read more...

Hideo Kojima recently confirmed that he plans to end the Metal Gear series with Metal Gear Solid 2. Previous to this report, I’d seen Kojima comment that he would like to end the Metal Gear series and move onto something else, although he knows that people love MGS and want it to keep going. No... Read more...

"There is no truth to an agreement between Nintendo and Square. Square is free to say what it wants, but there are no plans for a contract, and the chances that there will be one in the future are low."

January 29, 2001

Those cute and cuddly little psycos are headed for the Game Boy Advance. Who didn't see this coming?

In his recent interview with Bloomberg Japan, Nintendo president Hiroshi Yamauchi stated that a new Pokemon title would find its home on the Game Boy Advance early next year. He said that it was going to be a launch title but the programming wouldn't be done on time so it has been delayed.

Just to make everything official, Steven Thomas recently appeared in the forums and let it be known that he would be leaving our ranks for some time. One of the key players here at the Planet, we’re going to miss you, Steve & all of us hope you can return soon.

January 28, 2001

Desmond Gaban informed me that NCL has just issued a press release to Bloomberg Japan from President Hiroshi Yamauchi. We have linked the English version of the release above. Yamauchi has let it be known that Nintendo has received 2.7 million orders for highly anticipated GBA. Nintendo will ship... Read more...

Haha, I guess we Planet staffers are the only sorry souls who are either too unskilled or lazy to get a better translation of the article going as a flood of email came in either helping with sections or pointing to proper translations. I figured it would just be easier and a better way to spread... Read more...

January 27, 2001

Between working on the FAQ update, the new site and cleaning my apartment, I haven't had much time for sleep or other Planet daily activities. Luckily, Justin was on the case today posting all kinds of good stuff from Consoles France. Even more fortunate, I received an email from webmaster Xavier... Read more...

It appears that between this and the Gameboy Advance post below that the folks at Consoles France have been busy. Here's a translation of the linked article above, of course it has its quirks since it is just a machine translation... if we have any fluent French speakers who feel inclined everyone would obviously love to hear a better one.

Screen shots of Napoleon and Golden Sun for the Gameboy Advance courtesy of Consoles-France.

For anyone eagerly awaiting either the Camelot-developed RPG Golden Sun or the Nintendo-developed strategy title Napoleon it appears that consoles France has your hook up. Ever-so-kindly it appears that someone on their staff sent me an email telling me about it and with anticipation for the Gameboy Advance slowly building I figured it would be a crime to hog all of them for myself.